Wyoming Women's Center

Wyoming's only women's prison, in the small town of Lusk — where every woman entering the state system is processed, with weekend-only visiting.

Overview

The Wyoming Women’s Center is the state’s one women’s prison — formally created by the Legislature in 1980, with the permanent facility at Lusk authorized the following year. A 2004-2007 expansion nearly doubled the facility to about 140,000 square feet, bringing capacity to 261 in the main facility plus a 32-bed intensive treatment unit. Every woman sentenced to Wyoming prison time is processed into the system here, and under the statewide policy, no visits are allowed during that intake period — visiting starts once intake ends and a housing unit is assigned.

Two placement nuances worth knowing: WDOC’s women’s intensive treatment unit operates at the Honor Conservation Camp in Newcastle, not at WWC, so a woman in that program is about 85 road miles north. And during a staffing shortage in 2024, WDOC temporarily housed some women at the Medium Correctional Institution in Torrington, returning them to WWC the following year as staffing recovered — the Wyoming Offender Locator shows current placement.

What Makes Wyoming Women’s Center Different

• Weekend-only visiting with long posted sessions — two blocks each Saturday and Sunday spanning 7:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., suited to the long drives most families face to reach Lusk.
• It is the intake point for every woman entering Wyoming’s prison system, which means a no-visiting window at the start of every sentence.
• WDOC publishes no video visiting option for WWC — the department posts video-visit documents only for the State Penitentiary and the Honor Conservation Camp, so phone and mail are the published distance options here.
• The site includes an aquaculture building where tilapia are raised, alongside laundry and supply industries, and the women’s Youthful Offender Transition Program operates here.
• A mother-child unit was built at WWC with legislative funding in the early 2010s but never opened, per Wyoming news reporting, and WDOC’s current materials list no such program. Under current published policy, deliveries happen at outside hospitals and high-risk pregnancies may be housed in the vulnerable-population unit at the Torrington facility.
• Lusk, population about 1,500, is the seat of Wyoming’s least-populated county — services exist but are limited, and there is no published public transit to town.

Visiting Hours and Procedures

The statewide rules above — the inmate-initiated application, dress code, ID, and the full-body scanner — apply at WWC. What follows is specific to this facility.

WDOC posts WWC’s hours on its visitation page without a facility-specific procedures document, so details like processing cutoffs come from the statewide policy: arrival within 15 minutes of a session start, photo ID exchanged for a badge, and up to $20 in change or tokens for vending. The full approval process and dress code are in Visiting in Wyoming.

Getting There and Parking

WWC is at 1000 West Griffith in Lusk, which sits at the junction of US Highways 18, 20, and 85 about 20 miles west of the Nebraska border.

No bus, rail, or shuttle service to Lusk is published anywhere — the trip is by car. WDOC publishes no visitor parking details. Eastern Wyoming highways close in winter storms; wyoroad.info and the Wyoming 511 app carry current conditions.

Nearby Services

Lusk is small but covers the basics for a visit day: a handful of motels (Best Western Pioneer, Town House Motel, Trail Motel, Rodeway Inn), local restaurants, and fuel along the highway junctions. Niobrara Community Hospital at 921 S. Ballancee in Lusk is a critical-access hospital with a 24/7 emergency department.

The nearest larger town is Torrington, roughly an hour south on US-85; the nearest cities with airports are Casper, about an hour and a half away, and Rapid City, South Dakota, about two and a half hours.

Learn More

For detailed information about visiting and communicating with someone in a Wyoming state facility:

• Visiting in Wyoming — the inmate-initiated application, dress code, and scanner
• Mail & Packages — the number-after-name addressing rule
• Phone & Video Calls — the ICSolutions system and calling lists
• Sending Money — the visitor-list deposit requirement
• Medical & Mental Health — the 24/7 family crisis line
• Transfers — intake, custody levels, and out-of-state placement